Linden (52) at St. Patrick (68) - Boys Basketball

The first meeting between St. Patrick and Linden took nearly five quarters to decide. Last night’s reunion at Johnson High School in Clark was decided in the first five minutes.

St. Patrick, No. 9 in The Star Ledger Top 20, rolled out to an 11-point first-quarter advantage en route to a 68-52 decision over No. 10 Linden. St. Patrick claimed a 74-68 overtime victory two weeks ago in Linden.

“When I look at the first time we played Linden, I thought it was the best first quarter we played all year,” St. Patrick coach Chris Chavannes said. “Then our immaturity settled in and we struggled after that. This game our guys did a nice job hanging in there, not letting the pressure get to them and not getting fatigued.”

St. Patrick led wire-to-wire this time, as five different players contributed points in a 13-2 run that consumed the majority of the first quarter. Elijah Davis scored four of his game-high 21 points in the run, De’Andre Bembry, Tom Rivera and Daniel Knight each scored a bucket and Darrian Collins opened the barrage with one of his 3-pointers.

Bembry scored 16 points but was more effective as a distributor and on defense. He recorded seven assists, grabbed eight rebounds and blocked three shots.

“He’s a special basketball player,” Linden coach Phil Colicchio said of Bembry. “He does a little bit of everything. Earlier when I saw him he was posting up, now he’s hitting jump shots and making good entry passes. The kid has a motor that is second to none of anyone I’ve seen in New Jersey."

Bembry guarded what Colicchio considers Linden’s best player, Shakir Phelps, and held him to seven points. The St. Patrick man-to-man also did a nice job of moving Linden’s 6-8 sophomore forward, Quadri Moore, out to the perimeter. Moore led Linden with 17 points.

Linden closed the gap to 10 points, 34-24, at the half and got to within seven at 38-31 with 4:20 left in the third. However, St. Patrick used a 15-4 spurt to pull away, 53-35, heading into the fourth quarter. Davis led the charge with seven points.

The slow start has become a pattern for Linden.

“It’s what we’ve been doing against the better teams,” said Colicchio, referring to his team's sluggish starts. “We did it against Plainfield, Trenton Catholic and St. Pat’s the last time. We’re digging ourselves a hole and you can’t do that against these teams.

“You have to play them even and weather their storms. For some reason we’re coming out of the gate slow.”